Leave a comment

The peak plateau of Mount Izumo.

An unknown power had levitated this peak in the skies for tens of thousands of years, and finally, Lily’s slender feet stepped onto the top of this mountain.

This was a plateau several hundred meters wide, bleak and vast.

All around were collapsed mountain rock, dried ponds, and withered ancient trees. The air was full of fog, and the place was gloomy. Lily was unable to see the mountains or seas, it was as if she was in a different world.

But this was the peak!

She walked on the road, in between several large boulders and saw a cliff in the distance. On that cliff was a broken stone table, and a weathered chessboard. It seems as if someone had played a game here long ago.

To be able to play a game here, it must have been the immortals.

She continued to walk forward and reached a place surrounded by giant boulders at the top of the mountain. It looked as if there used to be a giant stone pavilion here, only the top of the pavilion was gone and all that was left was foundation and a few broken stone pillars. The stone pillars had been carved with ancient script.

The script was very similar to the script on her ancient mirror, only rougher.

Her mirror originated from Suzuhiko-hime. Looks like this was the place where the gods gathered.

Looking around, all the stone tables and chairs were either cracked or collapsed, and the white stone of the ancient pillars were overgrown with moss and vines.

“It should be here, only the gods must not have come here for many years…” Lily muttered to herself.

Looking upon this desolate, shattered place, for some reason she felt a sense of sadness. Either the departure of the gods had somehow affected her, or she was too sentimental.

Passing through the courtyard, Lily walked up a stone stairs, reaching the highest point of the mountain overlooking everything.

This place was a flat octagonal stone formation ten meters wide. The formation was engraved with worn ancient script. Around the formation were eight large stone pillars, but they mostly all broken and collapsed.

Looking around, she felt that this was the real peak of Izumo Mountain. Perhaps when the gods first descended, they had landed on this stone platform.

Taking a deep breath, Lily wondered if she was about to fulfill her heartfelt wish. Had she really climbed to the peak of this Izumo Mountain?

Recalling obstacle after obstacle, difficulty after difficulty, although the time she had spent on this road wasn’t long, each encounter was more thrilling than the last, how difficult it had been to climb this mountain!

If her ancient mirror had not opened the fifth door, she would have probably died in that world full of monsters. It was really…too difficult, too dangerous. But no matter what, she had reached the top!

Right now, she didn’t care about the so-called treasures or opportunities, all she cared about was praying to the gods and asking for help to awaken Rinne!

The skies were gloomy, dusky and filled with wind. Looking around herself, Lily felt that if one was to pray, it should be right here.

She muttered in her heart, “Senior Rinne, I came to this world as a powerless girl, but I’ve endured through this difficult and dangerous journey because you…are the most important, strongest and unshakable pillar to me¹. You are the meaning of my existence and journey in this world! Finally, today, I shall finally uncover the secret of awakening you! Senior Rinne, do you know, just how hard this was…”

She couldn’t help but shed tears of joy as a smile spread across her face.

After combing her hair and arranging her clothes, she walked to the center of the formation and knelt down solemnly.

Raising her head, she looked at the dark vast skies. Even if the skies were gloomy, the gods should still be able to see right?

Clasping her hands, she raised them reverently to her chest and took a deep breath…

Calming her mind and heart, she opened her mouth, “Gods—if you can hear my prayer up high, I beg you, tell me, how do I awaken my sister Rinne? Gods—I beg, please guide me, even if it’s a dangerous and difficult method, I’m willing to try.”

“Gods…”

Looking up into the skies, they were still dark and without response.

“Ah? How could this be?”

Perhaps the gods couldn’t hear her?

“No, not possible!” Such a magical mountain, such a difficult road, and this extraordinary mountain peak, how could this be fake? This must be the place where gods gathered!

She must not have been pious enough, not respectful enough!

She kowtowed nine times, and shouted with sincerity, “Gods, please listen to my wish! I beg for guidance, how can I awaken sister Rinne’s soul? Please tell me! What should I do? I’m willing to pay the price necessary!”

“Gods, please guide me! Sister Rinne has already given up everything for me, I must save her! Please guide me… Gods…”

Just as despair slowly showed in her eyes, the skies suddenly changed.

Up high in the skies, dark thunder clouds rolled in, alike a pitch-black ocean. In the dark thick clouds, incomparably majestic power circulated within those clouds!

“Gods!?” The flashing light within the clouds made her look pale, but her eyes were lit up with joy, “This reaction, the gods must have heard me! The gods are going to guide me!”

“I’m about to awaken senior Rinne!!!”

Her eyes were filled with worship as they reflected the rolling black clouds! Flashes reflected in her eyes, as lightning transmitted between the thousands of miles of dark clouds and mist.

That cold light reflected off of Lily’s pale, immature, and weak face. In the face of these rolling clouds and thunder, Lily could only smile happily. She was waiting, waiting for the response of the gods.

That way, she can finally discover the method to waking Rinne up.

The thunderclouds spun, the turbulence spinning far above her head, forming a funnel ten thousands of miles high of dark thunderous clouds. The vortex funnel up high formed an indescribable void.

Was that the place where the gods were going to give her guidance? That was the passageway between the earth and skies!

“Gods…tell me…senior Rinne…”

Zzzzzt—!!! A horrifying heavenly lightning came crashing down from the thundercloud vortex, aimed directly at Lily!
“Eh?”

Lily instinctively knew that this lightning bolt contained enough power to annihilate everything, and its speed was not one she could evade. No matter how innocent or naive she was, she knew without doubt that this was no guidance!

This was an extermination²!!!

All she could see was darkness in front of her, as that annihilating divine might approached her!

But— Her sakura parasol flew out of her ancient mirror by itself. A screen of crimson swirling cherry blossoms blocked in front of her.

Boom!!!

The world exploded in white, Lily’s ears buzzed before everything fell silent, Lily could only hear a buzzing sound.

Her sakura parasol, the otherworldly umbrella that had blocked all previous attacks without any damage, was now a black smoldering wreck³. The umbrella frame had been torn apart by the dark heavenly lightning.

The lightning deflected from all sides of the smoldering parasol and bombarded the huge suspended mountain peak. The stones shattered and vaporized.

The giant mountain suspended in the sky for countless years, cracked and collapsed into giant rubble, falling down from the sky!

Feeling nothing beneath her feet, Lily fell with the rubble.

She only stared at the thundering skies through the blackened frame of the sakura parasol, watching the clouds rumbling with thunder…

She couldn’t understand, what happened? What did she do? Surpassing countless dangers, climbing up to the peak and praying devoutly to the gods.

In return… She received this annihilating black heavenly thunder.

“Is this the heavenly path that lady Ayaka protects… Is this the gods of the lands of blessings? The gods that guide the world? Why…what did I do wrong to be punished like this? Why…”

She couldn’t hold it in and shouted at the skies while falling, “Why—exactly why—what did I do?! What did I and senior Rinne do!??? If we shouldn’t exist, why did you let us come to this world!!!”

From the skies, a man’s voice echoing like thunder answered her, “You—are a woman who cannot be allowed to live! The person you want to save, is destined to lead you, to destruction—”

Rumble— From the skies, the sound of thunder came.

Hurricane rain poured down.

However, Lily had already steeled herself and put up her golden light defense. Neither the judgment of the gods nor the hallucination caused by the thunder could shake her will.

The main peak of Izumo Mountain had collapsed, but she had not given up.

“If I can’t rely on the heavens, I will rely on myself!”

Her eyes glowed with never before seen resolution!

She reached out and grabbed the ruined sakura parasol⁴. Under the heavenly pressure; spirit power, domain or shikigami were all useless, only the sakura parasol could still be used to decrease the speed of falling.

Though under the suppression and winds, the ruined frame of her sakura parasol was constantly cracking, but it still held on enough to decrease her descent!

“Master…Sakura can no longer help you…my true master is not Suzuhiko-hime, but you……” Through the thundering and blowing winds, a poignant and phantom-like female voice whispered to Lily.

1. Yuki: The thing I hate most about this novel… is that the most important pillar to Lily is this girl who she’s only talked a few sentences to….

   Would it really be that difficult to make Rinne a much stronger existence in Lily’s previous life? Like a childhood friend….

2. Robinxen: Remove the infection at its source.
3. Robinxen: When I said to nerf the parasol a few chapters ago this is not what I had in mind!
4. Silva: My soul hurts so much as I read this chapter, after all the trials and tribulations to make it to the summit, only to be struck down without reason or rhyme.

   It also makes me all the more curious as to the real identity of this senior Rinne.